Heir property, also known as Heir’s or Heirs property, is land that is owned by descendants of an owner that did not have a will. We talked about title in the title insurance post, but for those who may have missed that post, title is the legal right of ownership to something.
Heir property may have been passed down informally among family members that perhaps did not have the land formally deeded to them, or perhaps no one knew they had to transfer the property after someone passed away. When someone dies and they have a will, the will has to be filed in the courthouse so there is a formal record of who receives property. If the will is not filed when someone dies, perhaps it is lost or cannot be verified, then the deceased person is said to have died intestate, meaning without a will. If a person dies and their will is recorded, they are said to have died testate, or with a will. Each state has different laws on how they handle intestate succession, or what happens to property when someone dies without a will. Typically the spouse is the first heir, then children, but situations like multiple marriages and children with different parents add kinks into the intestate succession division. Also adding layers is that states revise their laws, so intestate succession is based on what year the person died. In Virginia for example, if a person died before 1977, their property skipped the spouse and went directly to their children. It was only after the intestate succession laws were revised in 1977 that property went to the spouse.
So how does one clear up the title to Heir property? Well, all the owners of the property have to sign a deed transferring their share of the property. This gets complicated when there are decades between the decedent and lots of children and grandchildren, or if someone decides they don’t want to sign over their share. In that case, there has to be a partition suit filed, asking the court to either auction off the property or decide who gets it.
We’ve found a bit of a niche in finding heir property and descendants of property owners, so if you have a question about heir property, give us a call, or send us an email.
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